ISIS militants behead Lebanese soldier

Beirut - Islamic State militants beheaded a Lebanese soldier
who was one of 19 captured by hardline Syrian Islamists when they seized a
Lebanese border town for few days this month, a video posted on social media
showed on Saturday.

The soldier, recognisable as Ali al-Sayyed, a Sunni Muslim
from north Lebanon, was shown blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back,
writhing and kicking the dusty ground while a militant announces he will be
killed. Another militant then beheads him.

Islamic State, which declared a "caliphate" in
June in parts of Iraq and Syria under its control, has been cited as a major
security threat by Western governments since posting a video in August of the
beheading of US journalist James Foley.

The Lebanese army declined to comment but security and
Islamic State sources confirmed the latest beheading.

Hours later, the group posted a second video showing nine
other soldiers begging for their lives, urging their families to take to the
streets in the next three days to demand the release of Islamist prisoners as a
condition to escape al-Sayyed's fate.

Earlier this month, several Syrian groups, including Islamic
State and the al-Nusra Front battled the Lebanese army after the arrest of
rebel commander Emad Gomaa in the border town of Arsal. Gomaa is an al-Nusra
commander who switched affiliation to Islamic State but remained popular among
al-Nusra fighters.

The militants seized Arsal for five days before withdrawing
to a mountainous border region, taking 19 captive soldiers with them. They have
demanded the release of Gomaa and several Islamists jailed since a 2007
insurrection by an al Qaeda-inspired group at a Palestinian refugee camp in
north Lebanon.